Amilkal Labañino

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has called to tackle housing problem caused in Havana by a devastating tornado and expedite construction and repair.

During a summary of the Council of Ministers meeting held on Tuesday to follow up the recovery, the President insisted on going into detail in the communities hit by the tornado, so all damages are identified.

The Cuban Statesman informed participants to guarantee the quality of the technical data of each affected house, in order to avoid mistakes to resolve the problems created by the January 27 tornado.

Diaz-Canel demanded an effective functioning of the mechanisms activated to respond to the damage in houses, particularly the procedures offices and the points where the affected people can buy the construction materials.

Construction Minister Rene Mesa said during the meeting that more than 4,800 homes were affected, 380 of which suffered total collapses.

According to the minister, the identification of damages, recovery works, roof assembly and wall lifting continues after the lashing of the tornado in the municipalities of Regla, Guanabacoa, Diez de Octubre and San Miguel del Padron.

The restoration of communications was also analyzed. Communication Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo stated that the works continue in Diez de Octubre municipality, where, in addition to recovering damages, a new investment is being carrying out to replace wiring.

The lists of voters for the February 24 referendum on Cuba's new Constitution are being published Monday and Tuesday, sources of the National Electoral Commission (CEN) said. According to the authorities sworn on December 28 to organize, direct and validate the elections, each person can verify as January 16 the records, which should include more than eight million voters, that are being called to ratify the Constitution approved on December 22 by the People''s Power National Assembly.

Quoted by Granma newspaper, Colonel Mario Mendez, Chief of Identification, Immigration and Foreign Affairs Direction, said that the lists will be put in 'visible places near polling stations.'

Mendez urged voters to corroborate their personal data, and if necessary, proceed to correct them, modify them and update them in the procedure offices of each municipality.

According to the high officer of the Ministry of the Interior, these facilities -known in Cuba as Identity Card Offices- will be reinforced in the coming days to guarantee the electoral process.

More than eight million Cubans are eligible to the vote on February 24, a national date, which marks the restart in 1895 of the war against Spanish colonialism, to pronounce on the new Constitution, a text that ratifies Cuba's socialist nature and the leading role of the Communist Party in society.

The constitution reflects changes in the structure of the State, extends guarantees and human rights, promotes foreign investment, strengthens people's power from the grassroots (the municipalities) and recognizes several forms of property, including private property.

Venezuela insisted on Monday to open talks on bilateral issues with Colombian government and in turn strengthen border security, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza stressed.

During an interview to Televen private television program 'Jose Vicente Hoy,' the Foreign Minister ratified Caracas' willingness to talk, despite Bogota's evasion after three letters were sent by the Foreign Ministry to Colombia, and no answer has been received.

'We are concerned about the Colombian case, we have a very large border area, and common problems. We sent a monthly letter to Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes, where we raised the need to deal with border issues. The situation in Colombia is very complex,' Arreaza said.

'President Duque is experiencing a very complex situation, students and peasants protest and use Venezuela to distract public opinion of the immense, deep, serious and alarming problems the Colombian society has,' the foreign minister added.

He also denounced that the Colombian government insists on violating the bilateral agreements established for the orderly and voluntary return of Venezuelans through the 'Vuelta a la Patria' (Return to the Homeland) government plan.

Arreaza said that Colombia prevented on Sunday a bus carrying 42 Venezuelans to pass into Venezuela through the border area, and forced the repatriates to cross walking as an example of the most basic human rights violation, regardless of children, women and adults.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel paid tribute to Karl Marx today at the London cemetery in Highgate where the remains of the German philosopher rest.

The president of the island, who makes a transit visit to the United Kingdom after an international tour, visited on Wednesday the grave of one of the fathers of scientific socialism, considered one of the great thinkers of history, in the famed cemetery of the British capital.

Before his headstone, a pedestal of two meters high in the shape of a cube that holds an effigy of the philosopher who revolutionized the world, the Cuban head of state deposited a bouquet of flowers in the name of the Cuban people.

'We pay tribute to one of the great thinkers of humanity, Karl Marx, before his grave in the Highgate cemetery, in the year of the bicentennial of his birth and the 135th anniversary of his physical disappearance', the dignitary wrote in his account of the social network Twitter.

The members of the delegation accompanying the president of the Councils of State and Ministers of Cuba also placed flowers before the slab of one who is also seen as one of the fathers of scientific socialism, Marxism and historical materialism.

The headstone of Marx has inscribed a recorded message: 'Proletarians of all countries, unite', present in the last line of the Communist Manifesto, one of his best known works and written with his close friend Friedrich Engels.

Also it appears the phrase of the Thesis XI on Feuerbach (edited by Engels): The philosophers have only interpreted the world of different ways, but of what treats is to transform it.

Marx and Engels laid the foundations of scientific socialism and Marxism through the examination of history and its transformation.

Categories

In Sancti Spiritus People also Shouted ´I am Fidel´

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Cubasí.cu interviewed translator Aracelia del Valle from Escambray website on people’s reaction for the journey of the caravan carrying the remains of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro to Santiago de Cuba.